Completion rates for patients supervised by health workers and non-health workers were the same.

Completion fell from a high of 90% in 1992 to 78% in 1994.

Mortality increased from 5% in 1991 to 10% in 1994.

Conclusions

Community-based directly observed therapy that uses an intermittent drug regime and volunteers as supervisors can achieve high treatment completion rates for tuberculosis, even in resource-poor settings.